Three photos, one day

 Three snapshots of Dominican life taken around Saltadero and Cabrera.

Watching while the local boys jump into the pool below.

 

Village huts beside Saltadero.

The Cabrera coastline, wind and rain take hold.

Anacaona (and a little nudge towards picjointer)

These past few weeks have seen me creating a few different pieces. I've started using driftwood from the beaches out here, and Anacaona is my first finished piece, carved from Dominican driftwood, in the Dominican. She was found near Cabarete, on a beach overlooking the kite surfers. Anacaona, Golden Flower, was a Taino chieftan in the 15th Century. She is a celebrated mother figure in Hatian society, and her influence spanned the whole of Hispaniola.

Note: Picjointer? A natty ipad app that allows you to put together photo montages...

 

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5 reasons why you should get Photoshop Touch!

Since loosing my camera to the ravages of the economic downturn (would you believe it, I took my camera into Jessops to be fixed on the day they went into receivership) I have been using various methods for taking photographs. Using the ipad for this is a sinch, but what about editing photos? Enter Photoshop Touch.

At £6.99 it's way cheaper than the full version, it's easy to use, and the tutorials are a brilliant starting point. It can be used as a touch up and tidy tool. Having never really got to grips with the full version, it's a neat way to get started on creating, editing and just messing about with your photos!
Below is a series of photos with different effects, using the same base photo of Anacaona, my first Dominican figure.

Starting point, taken with the ipad.

A few scratches and sepia effect added to create an old photograph.

Comic book effect.

  

Using the comic book effect and adding acrylic paint.

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A surprising find near Playa Caleton!

A search on Google Earth revealed a small bay near Playa Caleton.  After a few wrong turnings (one involving a friendly man with a gun) we found the natural bay, a perfect spot for snorkeling.  The surprise?  The coast here is one massive fossil of a coral reef...

Crystal clear waters near Playa Caleton.

Here there are huge fossils of the coral reef that existed here millions of years ago.

Tiny winkles have found a home in one of the fossils.

A geologists dream!

 

Isis in Villa Magante

Since I've been in the Dominican Republic I've been focusing my work on larger pieces. Isis is the first finished piece, standing at 40cm tall! She was found on Hastings beach on 21st May 2012, on a slightly cold, but hopeful spring day.

Hastings beach, down by Rock-a-Nore.  The tide is out and I'm ready for the driftwood!

Isis in the raw. 

I wanted to leave the impression of her hair, with just the hint of a pattern in the wood, leaving the rest to the observer's imagination.  Below is Isis in the Caribbean sun, miles away from where she was found, and bringing together three different cultures, from three continents!

So what do I know about Isis, well she's the Egyptian Goddess of magic, wife and sister of Osiris, and is also the namesake of the River Thames as it flows through Oxford. A lot of the iconography associated with the story of Isis and Osiris can be found in early Christian religions, where the figure of Isis suckling her son Horus, was transformed into the figure of Mary holding the baby Jesus. There are other striking similarities between the story of Jesus and that of Osiris and Isis as they both contain elements of death and rebirth.

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What's new in Samana?

After a week of settling in to my almost new life in the Dominican Republic, we decided to go on boat trip in Samana Bay to see the Whales.  There is a short window of opportunity to see these majestic creatures during the first three months of the year, when the whales return to warmer waters to mate and calve.

Arriving in Samana Bay on a scorching hot February day.

Leaving Samana by boat.

 We got our first glimpse of a male and female pair (the male later turned out to be 'Bat' after the researchers had identified him) within a few minutes of leaving the coastline.  And we stayed with this pair throughout our trip.

Our first glimpse of the male and female pair was a water spout in the distance.

Bat rolling and saying 'hi'!

Majestic to the end.

During our trip we got the chance to get close to the whales, some of the smaller boats daring to go even closer.  All eyes were scanning the sea to see where the whales would next appear.  One special moment was when the female breached, and we got to see her launch up in the air just metres away from the prow of the boat.  Plenty of people were lucky enough to get a photo - poor me, my camera jammed and all I got was a picture of the inside of the boat!

One last shot!

Leaving Samana Bay

Check  out more photographs at: www.facebook.com/shivakingcreates

Work in progress...

I found this little piece if driftwood on Littlehampton beach along with a mermaid's purse a few months back, and started carving her while staying in Minehead during the recent cold snap.

The first stage was to decide the nature of the sculpture.

Next to mark out a rough silhouette.

 

More detail is added with the tail taking shape.

Now the head and arms.

How she looks now after a quick sanding of the main features.